Tema: Lift the Cuba Embargo?

As long as Fidel Castro is alive and in charge, investments are a huge risk. Cuba owes everyone money, a staggering debt of $60 billions, and does not pay its bills simply because they do not generate any wealth. Since 1992 the Cuba regime hasn’t paid the external debt and therefore cannot obtain more credit from many countries. It would take a real dummy to make any type of investment in Cuba under the present regime.

You can keep repeating the absurdity that Cuba doesn´t generate any wealth and it won´t change the fact that Cuba has a higher standard of living than many of the surrounding capitalist countries like El Salvador or Guatemala, or countries like India and China where everyone wants to invests. Also, the many Spanish investments in the island refute your argument.

You seem to be nothing more than a rabid, uninformed Cuban exilee from Miami who is no better in his capacity to think clearly than the communist in Havanah. A tale of two cities filled with intellectually primitive people incapable of moving on from erred policies.

The communist regime of Cuba, wages war against its own people, it will never of its own will return democracy to its people, it will never stop putting people in jail for expressing thoughts freely, it will never lift censorship of the press, it will never allow Cubans to travel freely, it will never allow free elections. The effect of the embargo on Cuba has partially fulfilled its objectives. It prevented Castro from obtaining loans and lines of credit that would allow him to finance his permanence in power and avoiding the growth of the indebtedness of Cuba without benefit for the population.

The argument for lifting the embargo is made by people who believe that laws that in our country protect property and its lawful owners should not apply to the Cuban citizens, this is why they encourage us to enjoy parading in 50's era cars that were stolen at gun point from their lawful owners, and stay in hotels that were confiscated from their lawful owners, and smoke cigars made in factories that were stolen from their lawful owners, or sip mojitos and daiquiris made from rum brands stolen from their rightful owners.

You don’t need to look further; here you have the answer from the “horse” mouth:

“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. Fidel Castro (Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988)

What will bring "Change" to Cuba are free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy. Everything else is “mental masturbation!”

This is one of the few times that I agree with Castro. In this case a 100%. Keep the embargo until he cry uncle.

The impossible dream, again
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/30/the-impossible-dream-again/

Everett 'Ted' Ellis Briggs
The Washington Post

My father was a U.S. diplomat stationed in Cuba when I was born. Thus I am an American by birth who spent my life as an American diplomat serving in many countries, including Portugal, Honduras, and Panama where I was the American ambassador. Because we lived in Cuba for many years, I have remained interested in the island's affairs.

I attended this month's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearings on whether to lift restrictions on tourist travel to Cuba. Many in Congress, who favor a softer U.S. policy, argue we should neither demand nor expect anything in return from the Castro regime for lifting what remains of the U.S. embargo. It doesn't bother them that Havana rejected President Obama's request, when he lifted restrictions on remittances and family visits, that Cuba respond by releasing its political prisoners.

In fact, it is misleading to continue to call U.S. restrictions on commercial dealings with Cuba an "embargo." Today's restrictions aim not to undermine the regime, but rather to avoid financing its longevity, and they do so without harm to the Cuban people. That's because the hardships of Cuban life don't stem from the U.S. "embargo." They stem from the mind-numbing economic and heavy-handed political policies of Cuba's communist regime.

Cuba's "bailout", by obtaining US-backed credit lines as well as the external debt of over $60 billion, will guarantee the continuation of the Castros regime, delaying instead of accelerating a transition to democracy.

Mora than 15 million tourists have gone to Cuba in the last 10 years, mainly from Canada and Europe, haven’t been able to influence a political and economic opening of Castro’s regime, exceptfor providing hard currency to it. Who could maintain the illusion that tourism and trade with the United States can do it?

If American tourists are allowed to visit Cuba, the Castro regime will follow the same practices of the communist countries in the past. Their travel would be controlled and channeled into the tourist resorts built in the island away from the major centers of population, and they will be screened carefully to prevent "subversive propaganda" from entering the island. They will have limited contact with Cubans thus their influence would be limited.

Castro's security forces tightly controls most of the tourist resort areas. They are off-limits to the average Cuban. Employees in these resorts are carefully screened by the regime and programmed to tell the visiting tourists Castro propaganda line.

Almost 300,000 Cubans abroad visited island in '09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_immigration

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer– Wed Jan 27, 3:37 pm ET

HAVANA – Nearly 300,000 Cubans living abroad visited their homeland last year, the island's foreign minister said Wednesday, but he insisted a loosening of travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans coming to the island was "insufficient."

It was unclear if the 2009 figure was a record since the government rarely releases complete figures on the number of Cubans living overseas and the frequency of their visits. But Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said about 296,000 Cubans living abroad came back last year compared to just 37,000 in 1994.

He did not say how many came from the United States, but the overwhelming majority of islanders overseas live in the U.S., mostly in southern Florida and New Jersey. There are other sizable Cuban communities in Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

In April, President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on Cubans living in the United States who want to travel or send money to the island. The move erased limits imposed by the administration of former President George W. Bush, but has been dismissed by Cuban officials as inadequate.

Rodriguez said Washington has sought to turn Cubans who choose to leave the island into "refugees who have fled in search of liberty."

Cuba's government offers no statistics on how many of its citizens have left the island since Fidel Castro toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year's Day 1959, though experts put the number at as many as 1.5 million — more than 13 percent of today's entire Cuban population of about 11.2 million.

Under a 1994 agreement with the Cuban government designed to stop mass illegal immigration, the United States offers 20,000 visas to Cuban immigrants per year. Tens of thousands more flee the island secretly each year, and nearly all who reach U.S. soil are allowed to stay.

But even moving away from Cuba legally is not easy. Cubans wanting to emigrate must obtain official permission from the communist government to leave, a special passport and, often, a string of additional visas — as well as having to meet the requirements for the destination country.

Once outside, immigrants face strict Cuban government rules on how long they have to wait before they can visit the island anew, and how long they can stay.

The foreign minister's comments kicked off a three-day immigration forum featuring 450 Cubans who live overseas, including 200 from the United States. Those invited were considered supportive of the single-party communist system.

"This is a positive event," said Delia Zurdo, a Miami resident. "I've lived there for 42 years, but I miss my country and I want to help defend it, and defend it until I die."

It doesn't have any importance whatsoever. The Cuban emigres are just those 450 authorized to return to Cuba and who are supporters of the Cuban regime.

Exchange of views between Cuban officials and Cuban émigrés, as long as everyone tows the Castro party line. What a joke. Cuban abroad has to solicit to the Cuban regime, through a non refundable pre-pay petition, permission to return to the country of their birth.

Cubans vote with their feet when they escape from Dr. Castro’s island paradise. There are 1.7 millions Cuban-Americans living in the US, and 600,000 Cubans in the rest of the world, for a total of 2.3 millions. The actual population in Cuba is 11.4 millions. The 2.3 millions living abroad represent 20% of the population in the island.